Newly rebranded Connect Group extends £215m magazine deal

Oliver Smith is a senior reporter at The Memo, an online publication curious about the future of technology. He was formerly a reporter at City A.M.

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CONNECT Group, the London-listed newspaper and magazine wholesaler that is today rebranding from Smiths News, has secured an agreement with Frontline and Seymour worth £215m a year until 2020.

Frontline distributes titles from H Bauer, Immediate Media and Haymarket, while Seymour’s titles come from a number of publishers including Future Publishing and Dennis Publishing.

The deal gives Connect a 42 per cent share of the UK magazine market and it reported that it now has £1.1bn in secured annual revenues until 2019.

“Today’s announcement extends our relationship with two of our largest magazine distributors. With 90 per cent of magazine distribution revenues secured to 2019 and beyond, our market leading proposition is now secured for the long term,” said chief executive Mark Cashmore yesterday.